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Tuesday, 1 August 2017

IMP48 Baroness Julanne free in August and last monthly miniature - important article!

Four years ago The Ion Age began anew with its website, its rewards programme and its 15mm pledge to action along with a vision for the space opera future and a free miniature in every single package going out the door. In that first month we gave away IMP01 Retained Knight Kneeling in Cloak free with every order. In the four years since until August 2017 we have created forty eight free monthly unique 15mm miniatures and many thousands of them have gone out across the world. We now present to you the last free monthly miniature; IMP48 A special lady indeed as she featured as our introductory artwork for The Ion Age back in 2013. Yes the last one. IMP48 Baroness Julanne of Canlaster is free in every order this month. Read on for details of this month and where we are now heading with the completion of Year Four this month and the end of the monthly programme.

Free in every order every time all month. This miniature is automatically put into every order at the rate of one per order regardless of order value. It can also be bought in any amount on the monthly IMP page of the website for this month only too before being withdrawn on the first of September. You can see the Year Three Collection on the website. The Year Four Collection will be released later in August and will mark the end of the monthly free programme at that time; there will be no more monthly miniatures after IMP48.

Standing 17mm tall Baroness Julanne is a great female character in personalised Alwite Powered Armour with an Octa Sword who can lead your Marcher Baron forces or be part of the Prydian Army. She is the female figure head for our website and when we began and now she is a miniature! There is a complete page on the Ion Age website where all of the forty right IMP series free miniatures are shown so that you can see what came before. They all feature in the Year Collections (1,2,3 and soon 4 and the total set too) if you wish to get any you missed. This miniature is worth 0.60GBP. Later this month we will release the Year Four Collection and the full IMP Collection of all 48 miniatures.

The end of the IMP monthly free miniature.

So I guess many of you will be wondering why we have chosen to end the free miniature project with the forty eighth miniature. When I began this new Ion Age I was not sure it would succeed and in fact some even told me not to go for it But it has grown and evolved and I am very proud to have achieved the first stage of my vision for The Ion Age in just under four years on my own terms. It was my intent to get a game system created and to populate it with 15mm miniatures building upon a small starting block. Patrol Angis along with Callsign Taranis and The Khanate Return achieved this and every miniature ever spoken about in The Ion Age originally now exists in 15mm scale both Human and Khanate. Four years and forty eight free miniatures it is time to stop and re-focus efforts to the second stage of the vision. We have so many ideas we want to get into metal and resin and there have been many changes in four years too. As you will know 15mmcouk merged back into Alternative Armies and The Ion Age is linked to that. As a total company we are busier than ever and this has altered our focus. I have kept the Rewards Programme just as it is. The programme has some five million points accrued with in it and a thousand rewards claimed. We will continue to do promotional and special miniatures with the seasons and for chuckles too. With this turn of focus and other ideas to pursue it was time to end IMP.

I do not want to leave you here without giving you some hint of what will begin our next phase at The Ion Age. From September 2017 we will be expanding upon the design work and books which your faith in us has allowed us to do so far. Wider ground and what else is within and without the Prydian Precinct will see a new book and a lot of new miniature and other releases of a scope not yet experienced. Read on.

The forth book in the Patrol Angis series will concern itself with the Marcher Barons, the Civil War and the conflicts among the stellar systems of the Precinct as well as details of those systems there will be a new faction long awaited...The Starvaulters! New skills, abilities and equipment as well as characters like Diodine Sparrow of the Quarrel Company. A definitive setting for war between knights and muster as Prydia Burns! More of this as we near it and yes there will be a full range of miniatures for the Starvaulters the million strong elite of our space opera future. That is the new project in The Ion Age for me in the form of book four.

Miniatures are what it is all about and 15mm goodness shall come forth in a massive expansion of the Shia Khan Empire and the Planetary Militia all from the hands of Sam Croes. An expansion on a order of magnitude not yet seen from us and much larger than most Kickstarter campaigns too. We will be adding every single one of the client races detailed in The Khanate Return at full Ordos (platoon) level which means around one hundred and sixty new 15mm Khanate from the Pertinax and Saurod to the Beotans and Betrayers as well as portable weapons crews for each of them. Infantry Size Vehicles for each of these client races too! As well as this nearly sixty new Planetary Militia with Cold Climes and Hot Climes as well as Infantry Sized Vehicles for them too. Lastly the Starvaulters at a full force too including their unique Infantry Sized Vehicles. All in all this means in total more than 250 brand new 15mm miniatures from us from September on! That is the first goal for the second phase of the vision for The Ion Age.

During August we will have new vehicle releases and we will be taking part in an event with Alternative Armies plus we will be releasing the Year Four Collection of twelve miniatures and the total collection IMP of forty eight miniatures. Our month long offer is 20% off the fantastic Jade Ape Battlesuit which is now a resin and white metal kit. Go HERE for these with offer ending 1st September.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and that you like the last monthly free miniature. Ain't she a beauty! Feel free to ask any questions you might have on our blog or by email to info@theionage.com.

6 comments:

Sensible move, your expansion programme seems-huge, but I'm sure you can pull it off. I'm one of a growing number using your figures & vehicles for other rule sets - and you are supportive of this, unlike some of your more "insular" competitors.

Hello David and thanks. Yes choices must be made. This we think is the right one. It will be a lot of new miniatures but many of them are already being molded and we are confident that The Ion Age will expand and keep on going. If customers choose us for their gaming wants then I am totally cool with what they choose to do with them. GBS

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The Ion Age

Near a thousand years has passed since the galaxy brought itself to the brink of extinction in the Wars of the Khanate. Dragon ships burned a thousand worlds and humanity sank to its knees amid the ruins of its once glittering stellar commonwealth. At the battle for the Aldan star system the Ban of Prejudice was lifted and for once the liberated soldiers of the Free Companies stood shoulder to shoulder with the gene soldiers of the sterile Imperial Commonwealth; mankind once more united to stop an overwhelming alien threat. A billion men and woman died fighting and the matter gateway on Aldan IV newly built by the Khanate spewed forth legions from across the galactic plane at a rate that even the fanatical Templars of the Free Companies could not halt. It was then, according to the scorched records of the Starvaulters, that the Templars committed the greatest act of treachery even committed upon the body of humanity; creating the Dolorous Expanses. Whole star systems vanished and were replaced with impenetrable clouds of dust, covering dozens of light years each. An artefact of ancient design in the Aldan system, discovered by the Templars but kept secret, the Dolorous Expanses ended the wars at a stroke. Death and destruction beyond toll, changing the very face of the galaxy and all was still; the Free Companies cast out the Templars and the Imperium retreated into its shattered self. The Khanate...gone…for the time being.

Dark times followed and the fate of mankind looked grim, starvation gained hold and commerce fell to the wayside, as few starships could navigate the Dolorous Expanses and contact with the clouds meant instant obliteration. Inhabited worlds tortured their peoples in desperate acts of accelerated terra-forming; needing the land to feed themselves now that commerce was gone. The once zealot and fanatical Free Companies settled into an agrarian civilisation of fifty worlds bonded loosely by their ruling Barons, those of the Free Companies who had retained the armour and weapons of the mighty Crusader regiments.

On worlds such as New Glastonbury and its orbiting Tor these Barons consolidated their powers and on the whole were good to their people, they needed to be; too much had been lost already. Centuries passed and the region of space containing these green and pleasant worlds became known as the Prydian Precinct. Each stellar system looked to itself for sustenance and as technology returned the mighty starships refined their engines and learned how to use the titanic power of the Ion to generate intense magnetic fields and transport themselves instantly from one system to the next avoiding the deadly 'Dolo Clouds'. The need for a collective leadership became clear once more.

The core systems of Prydian space elected a council of Barons, who became the Aeddan's, to lead them and from among their number a titular head was chosen; a king to act on the behalf of all. To prevent the possible imperial ambitions of the past no standing army was allowed to be in the hands of the Aeddan Council or the King who resided on New Glastonbury. Each system would tend to its own needs to fend off pirates and mercenaries who did not respect the King's laws. Allotted to the Aeddan and the King were the million strong Starvaulters, an armed retinue to police the Prydian Precinct, but with no authority or desire to interfere with the Barons and their worlds; their impartiality was all that kept a vital respect for their judgements in matters the Barons could not agree upon.

For a time this arrangement worked and then war once more threatened the worlds of the Prydian Precinct, and war required troops. Millions of soldiers dressed once more in the augmented armour of their forefathers once more took to the field of battle on a hundred planets and countless orbiters and asteroids. It was in war that disaster fell, King Cyon III was killed, and he left his infant daughter in his place. A mere babe could not administer the needs of the Aeddan and their billions of charges, a guardianship was needed. The duty fell to Reckart Nevall a mighty Baron known as the 'Kingmaker' but his guardianship was not greeted by all with joy, over the fifteen years that followed two great camps grew within Prydian space and the Aeddan council split in twain.

A minor Baron whose world Kendal III was poor but populous brought the building tension to a head. Baron Kacj Dace rebelled against a judgement of the Starvaulters and called upon the Marcher Barons of the outer systems of Prydian space to assist him. This they did, seeing the Starvaulters as nothing more than Nevall's retinue to ensure his false control of the Aeddan Council. Naming themselves the League of Canlaster they elected Prince Edmund Bluefort as their rightful heir to the crown of Prydia and attacked Kendal III destroying the small force of Starvaulters on the planet. This single act ignited a civil war, a conflict the largest seen by the worlds of Prydian space for centuries. Nevall reacted with rage and called on the support of his own Marcher Barons to control the now teenage Princess Daphne Cyon and the throne she represented. He headed the League of Yordan named for his home world. The first battle of the Prydian Civil War was fought on Kendal III, many more soon followed. An elite strike force of Starvaulters stole Princess Cyon from Nevall's grasp and spirited her away to New Glastonbury where they now reside in force.

It is now the twelfth year of the Civil War and after suffering terrible setbacks and defeats the white and red uniformed troops of the Prydian Army have gained new vigour and are pushing the Leagues to their limit.Led by the veterans of the Starvaulters and driven by the Code Gallant the now adult Princess Daphne Cyon has promised to liberate each and every world in the Precinct and return it to the safe holding of the Addan Council.This she is doing to great effect and none in the Leagues seem able to prevent the cheering crowds and the flocking to the banners of the Addan.The Civil War might be nearing its end and for many this cannot come soon enough.

Rumours abound about the ever increasing numbers of Muster and Retained along with some of the shining lights of the Starvaulters being sent to the remote Carmarthen star cluster.Some have hinted that perhaps the Leagues are not the prime threat to Prydia and something else, something terrible lurks at the edge of Precinct space.An ancient enemy that all the preparation and new vitality of the Prydian Army may not be able to halt.

Do you want to liberate worlds held by the Marcher Barons or resist the advance of the Prydian Army? Or do you dream and fear of what is occurring in the remote Carmarthen star cluster?